Oak Park High Rearranges How School Is Taught With ‘Academy’ : Education: Experimental program integrates traditionally separate subjects. It makes the grade with teachers, but ninth-graders would just as soon pass.

An innovative program launched at Oak Park High School in September is getting high marks from teachers and the administration, mixed reviews from parents and a vociferous “We hate it” from students.

But just about everyone agrees that the Ninth Grade Academy is a work in progress.

“Whenever you have change, you have arguments,” English teacher Kathy King said. “We’ve got a new challenge, and we are going to stub our toes along the way.”

Given the complaining that accompanies the mere mention of the academy to the ninth-graders--and some of their parents--it’s something of a miracle that teachers are even willing to pursue the project.

“We’ve been run down and beaten up,” King said. “All of the research shows we’re doing a good job with the top kids. We’re trying to best achieve those goals for all students, and it’s really hard.”

In fact, the academy is the result of two years of trying to make school more meaningful for all students at all levels.

With the help of a state restructuring grant, a team of Oak Park teachers and administrators developed a program that integrates what is traditionally taught separately in science, social studies, history, geography, English and even physical education.

“We are teaching these kids the same skills,” teacher Kim Galbreath said. “We’re just arranging it differently.”

The way the classes are arranged turns the old notions of how school should be taught upside-down. Instead of learning different topics in each class, the students study the same topic from different angles in almost all their classes. In addition, teachers designed the curriculum in ever-widening circles.

For the first six weeks of school, for example, students tackled the world around them. The students went on to study the cultures and ethnic groups that have given California its identity. As the year progresses, the students will explore expanding horizons, including national and global subjects.

Despite these changes, the school day at Oak Park High looks much like school days in high schools all over the country, with a few variations. During the first six weeks of school, for example, the students attended traditional classes in the morning.

In science, they learned about Oak Park and its environment. In history, they examined local political issues such as the proposed Ahmanson development. In English, teachers emphasized writing skills, and students were asked to integrate what they learned in their other classes by writing feature stories and editorials.

Those lessons were extended to physical education, where the students were given writing assignments in addition to regular athletic activities.

Abandoning the traditional classroom setting during the afternoons, ninth-graders would break into groups of four or five students to produce a “culminating project” incorporating everything they learned in their morning classes.

Their first assignment was to produce a newspaper that would reflect their world in the next century. The result was some wonderful--and wacky--journals that predicted the legalization of drugs, a subway from Los Angeles to Thousand Oaks, a cure for AIDS and even the return of PBS’ purple dinosaur Barney, who had been on hiatus from entertaining the toddler set since 1994, when a gang of 7-year-olds shot his pal Baby Bob in the chest with a semiautomatic pistol.

The students are now working in smaller groups on their next project, a game that reflects the effects of their culture on their lives.

The kids, however, seem to feel that the program is overkill.

“I think it’s stupid,” cheerleader Cristina Cooper said. “I don’t think there’s any point to it.”

“It’s like all our classes are connected,” Carolyn Yeh complained. “We get too much of the same subject.”

“There’s no variety,” echoed Jane Kim. “In every class, we’re learning the same thing.”

Many parents were initially opposed to the program, taking the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it approach to the National Blue Ribbon school. While tempers reportedly ran high at a number of meetings about the program, parents interviewed appeared willing to give the academy a chance.

“If you can get teachers excited about anything, I encourage it,” said Joan Santiago, whose son, Christian, is an Oak Park ninth-grader. “I’m trying to take a positive approach.”

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the program, however, and what really seems to rankle the students, is the elimination of Cs and Ds, which have been replaced by Incompletes.

The idea, teachers said, is to eliminate the old trick of sliding by with a D by not finishing assignments. Each student must now complete every classroom assignment to the best of his or her ability, or they fail the class.

“Kids learn how to play the system,” Principal Jeff Chancer said. “Before, we allowed kids to get by. Now we’re saying, ‘This is not acceptable. The incomplete is not a penalty. Just do it again.’ ”

Teachers recognize the controversy, noting that the “A” students complain more about the grading system than the less academic students. “It’s not as easy for them to shine,” King said. “And there’s resentment because of it.”

Despite the criticism, teachers are upbeat about the program, although they do admit to doing some fine-tuning along the way.

“We needed to improve on what we were doing,” math teacher Cheryl Shankel said. “This is a learning experience for us too.”

While the kids certainly have a lot of complaints about the academy, the teachers believe that part of their discontent can be chalked up to the normal obstructionist tendencies of ninth-graders taking on the new challenge of high school.

“It’s kind of cool to complain,” Shankel said. “If we hadn’t said it was different, I don’t think we would have gotten as many complaints.”